Imagine with me for a moment? 

You are just relaxing on your sofa or taking a stroll down a city street, and you catch the smell of fresh-baked, chocolate-chip cookies. 

What do you feel? 

What thoughts are coming to your mind? 

First, it’s important to realize that your body is not trying to drive you crazy, it is merely trying to protect you by alerting you to what it believes to be a potential danger to you. So, here are four things you can do to help yourself overcome intrusive thoughts and memories.

Intrusive thoughts are often related to memories of painful past events or unwelcome projections of things you’d never choose to think about, if you had your way. Either way, the one thing that they are definitely related to is anxiety, and quite possibly past trauma.